The Almighty Ring

“Hoho, my master. Did you really think you could hide your thoughts from me?” Akatziris snickered as she watched Jiang Fei heading toward the Teleportation Pad.

She then went toward the console and bent down. Underneath the large console panels, she reached out her metallic hands and summoned the light orb. It floated for a bit before it speedily rested on her palms.

“Initiate Decompression sequence,” Akatziris ordered. A tiny beep was heard from the corner of the room and a small black ball lit up. It was an automaton and it flew toward Akatziris, projecting a tiny beam of light at the light orb. The light orb floated upward and grew in size. The orb expanded quick and became a large one-meter-square crystalized cube.

Akatziris examined the cube and projected two beams of light from her eyes as she scanned it.

“Tsk. Only 20 million! This is too little, but it’s enough to finish the ship,” said Akatziris. Even though she was dissatisfied with the amount of Energy Crystals then, she could not have asked for more. To have siphoned 20 million Energy Crystals directly under Jiang Fei’s nose was not an easy feat. It was already a miracle that Jiang Fei had not caught 0543 committing such a treacherous act.

Everything that 0543 had done was according to Akatziris’ plan. 0543, on Akatziris’ orders, had taken advantage of the reviving process as well as any other orders from Jiang Fei that required energy. She had blatantly lied about the Energy Crystals needed, purposely citing more than the required amount. As such, after so many orders and commands, 0543 had managed to stow away 20 million Energy Crystals. Jiang Fei would not have noticed it since these Energy Crystals were gotten by “cutting corners”.

The next miraculous act was how 0543 had “smuggled” the Energy Crystals to Akatziris. To facilitate 0543’s moves, Akatziris had sent Ariel away with Straz. Even so, with Jiang Fei, Sylphy, and Nina watching over the room, it was not easy doing something suspicious and trying not to get caught. Fortunately, due to her being “distracted” 0543 was able to drop the “goods” undetected when everyone was busy acting their parts; Sylphy lashing out, Jiang Fei doing his thing across the console, Nina enduring Sylphy’s negative words, and Akatziris pretending to be offended.

0543’s espionage activities had allowed Akatziris to finish her work with Braveheart. If Jiang Fei knew about it, he would be devastated!

“Leader, Jiang Fei and his company has left the base,” said Straz when he returned to the bridge.

Akatziris nodded, which prompted Straz to walk to the bridge and closer to her.

“Leader, how do we proceed from here? Are we really going to participate in Jiang Fei’s attack on Veiga?”

“Yes. As a matter of fact, we need to participate. Everything would be ruined if Jiang Fei noticed the completion of Braveheart,” Akatziris replied.

“I still believe that we should return to Veiga and cooperate with them.”

Straz was still buying into the concept of “their own people”. From his vantage point, Jiang Fei represented all of humanity, and with his every movement against the machines, he reached the conclusion that humans and machines could never coexist.

“I recall telling you not to bring that topic up,” said Akatziris, arching an eyebrow as a warning.

“Very well…” said Straz as he retreated, subdued.

“Leader. I have reasons to believe that Jiang Fei had ulterior motives besides checking the ship,” said Straz.

“You are right. Jiang Fei had came here to promote himself as the captain of the ship!” said Akatziris with a smile. Even though Sylphy had gone all the way in lashing out at her, Akatziris had noticed something behind her act. Machines, in the end, acted and moved with logic and reasoning. A few minutes after Sylphy started her act, Akatziris had reasoned that it was only a ploy to draw her attention away from something. Naturally, she played along and noticed Jiang Fei’s shadowy movement behind her. Even so, Akatziris pretended not to notice. She was still incapable of fighting Jiang Fei at that very moment.

Even though Jiang Fei was already confirmed as the captain of Braveheart, Akatziris had contingency plans for it. She still had a method to bypass the system codes and gain control of the ship. Right now, everything was going according to plan. The reparation of the ship will go as scheduled and when it is completed, she would seize control of the ship and its captainship. With full control, she would be unstoppable. Jiang Fei would bow down to her!

“Leader, what would our next step be?”

“Continue with the reparation. After we are done with Jiang Fei’s attack, we will start with the final stage of the grand scheme!” Akatziris laughed.

“Very well. I will do as you ask,” Straz replied and left Akatziris to herself. With 20 million Energy Crystals, the reparation of the ship could now resume its progress.

“You will regret the day you turned against us, Jiang Fei!” Straz muttered to himself as he went to the hangar bay.

…

Back on Earth, Jiang Fei had started manufacturing a larger Shield Projector and a few Temporal Prisons. These equipment would be useful in the coming war with the Unknowns and since he had more than enough Energy Crystals, the development of his very own base was growing exponentially.

A few days prior, Jiang Fei had just welcomed three grand masters into his house—Zhuge Qinglong, the dwarf Lee Shi, and Yang Rouxi of the Aquamoon Heavenly Palace.

These three grand masters were there to ask a favor from Jiang Fei; to have their Godblades reforged into a useable form. Naturally, they brought along their own treasures and delivered them to him.

Feng Tianqi and the other grand masters had the same intention to own a personalized weapon but they did not own a Godblade. Without Valium, Jiang Fei could not create the formidable weapons for them!

Ask if they would want Zhuge Shanzhen to make a weaponized Godblade for them and these grand masters would give their answer in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, there was no free lunch in the world. They knew how precious these weapons were. Even if Zhuge Shanzhen had extra Godblades lying around in his mysterious house, these grand masters did not have anything of equal value to trade.

The reforging of three Godblades had earned Jiang Fei a good amount of Valium. So much so that Jiang Fei was able to make weapons for the girls. Daggers utilized the least amount of Valium, hence Jiang Fei had decided to arm Sylphy first. Isabella was given a Valium-infused claw. The latter never liked weapons in the first place since she could simply conjure Dragon Scales and Dragon Claws with her domain ability. Nevertheless, since she had gotten used to clawing her way around, Jiang Fei had decided to craft one for her.